U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,103, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, shows in FIGS. 1-3 an electrical connector assembly 10 having a thermoplastic connector body 12, a plurality of electrical terminals 14 which are attached to a plurality of insulated conductor wires 16, an elastomeric seal 18, a thermoplastic back shell 20 to which the connector body and elastomeric seal are connected, a connector position assurance device 22 and a thermoplastic end cap 24. The elastomeric seal 18 provides both a conductor wire and interface seals with the back shell 20. The back shell 20 included an end bell defined by movable clam shells 74, 76 which gathered the conductor wires 16 in a bundle when in a closed position.
The connector body 12 had a plurality of terminal cavities 26 which extended axially through the connector body 12 from a forward contact end 28 to a rearward conductor end 30. The connector body 12 had a nose portion of reduced height at the contact end 28, an enlarged rearward portion 34 at the conductor end 30 and lock posts 38 for connection to the back shell 20. The nose portion 32 comprised a plurality of ribs defining side by side channels 40 at the forward portion of the terminal cavities 26. Each terminal cavity 26 had a catch 42 at the forward end of the channel 40 to hold the terminal 14 down in the channel 40 and a wedge shaped lock shoulder 44 near the rearward end of its channel 40 for retaining the terminal 14 in the terminal cavity 2 and preventing it from being pulled rearward out the rearward conductor end 30.
Each of the terminals 14 disposed in the respective cavities 26 had a tubular receptacle at its forward end 46, axially spaced lands defining a circumferential groove 48 intermediate its ends and conventional crimp wings 50 at its rear end for attaching the terminal 14 to the associated insulated conductor wire 16.
In the above noted electrical connector assembly 10, the terminals 14 crimped to the individual electrical conductors 16 were inserted through aligned openings in the back shell 20, seal 18 and the cavities 26 of the connector body 12 from the rearward conductor end 30 towards the forward contact end 28. The terminals 14 were received within the channels 40 and with the forward land defining in part the recess 48 of each terminal 14 being ramped over its associated shoulder 44 to lock the terminal 14 in place. When this occurred, the forward end of the terminal contacts 46 were received within the catches 42 to hold the terminal 14 in place.
A drawback in the above-noted electrical connector assembly 10 was that it was somewhat difficult to retain or maintain the already connected terminals 14 in place as each individual additional terminal and conductor wire 16 was being connected to the connector body 12. If the terminal 14 and the electrical conductor 16 were accidentally moved in compression or toward the left, was possible for the terminal 14 to pop out of the catch 42 and out of the channel 40. Likewise, if the terminal 14 was not fully inserted so that it locked past the lock shoulder 44, the terminal 14 was not properly positioned. Thereafter, when the end cap 24 was placed over the terminals 14 and the forward portion of the connector body 12, the end cap 24 could be connected even though not all the terminals were properly positioned or locked in place. Thus, the assembler had to be very careful during assembly of the individual terminals 14 to make certain all were properly connected or positioned prior to applying the end cap 24.
FIGS. 9 and 10 of the drawings of the present application also shows a previously used connector body 12A like the connector body 12 shown in the prior patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,103, but wherein the catches 42 shown in the connector body 12 of the patent were eliminated and instead an integrally formed deflectable single flapper A overlying portions of all of the channels 40A was provided to hold the terminals 14A down into the channels 40A. The parts shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 which correspond to the parts shown in the aforementioned patent will be given the same reference numerals, but with a suffix A added to the numerals. The flapper A at its rearward end was formed integral with the rearward end 30A of the connector body 12A and had a forward end B which overlay the individual channels 40A. The flapper A extended laterally across all of the channels 40A of each row of channels and comprised a plurality of transversely spaced slats C extending forwardly from the rearward end 30A and which terminated in a transversely extending strip E at the forward end B which overlay all of the channels 40. The slats are separated by slots D extending from the strip E to the rearward end 30A in order to render the flapper A more flexible. In this embodiment, the flapper A was supported in cantilever fashion and had a smooth or continuous undersurface F, as shown in FIG. 10, which overlaid all of the terminals 14A in each row of channels 40A to retain them down in the channels 40A. The function of the flapper A was to deflect away from the channels 40A when the terminals 14A were being inserted and engaged the shoulders 44A and then move and retain the terminals 14A in place behind the shoulders 44A during the harness build, i.e., inserting all of the terminals 14A and conductors 16A in the electrical conductor body, until an end cap 24A (like the end cap 24 of the aforementioned patent) is placed on the forward end 28A of the connector body 12A and with the end cap 24A overlying the forward portion B of the flapper A.
It was found, however, that the single flapper A does not retain the terminal 14A in place if the lead 16A is tensioned, i.e., the lead 16A is pulled to the left, as viewed in FIGS. 9 and 10, with sufficient force. That is, the flapper A deflects away from the channel 40A to allow the terminal 14A to be cammed out of its locking engagement with the shoulder 44A, if a sufficient pull force to the left is exerted. Also, if the terminal 14A is unseated by not being locked over the locking shoulder 44A in the channel 40A, but is located on the ramp of the shoulder 44A, as shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 10, the flapper A is raised up and the terminal next to it will have no retention during harness build prior to connection of the end cap 24A. Likewise, the flapper design A does not provide any audible noise that provides feedback to an assembly operator that the terminal is properly seated when connected to the connector body 12A. In addition, the flapper design A would allow the end cap 24A to be placed on the connector 12A even if a terminal 14A is not properly seated by being locked over the shoulder 44A in the channel 40A of the connector body 12A.